


Funny How Time Flies

by AliceinBakerstreet



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Children, Family, M/M, OC, marraige
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-02-28
Updated: 2012-03-05
Packaged: 2017-10-31 21:17:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/348449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AliceinBakerstreet/pseuds/AliceinBakerstreet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John and Sherlock are married, they have been together 17 years and they are just as close. Their son Hamish, has reached a very important point in his life and his parent's realise how soon, they must say goodbye.</p>
<p>This is almost like a chaptered memoir from John's POV. It will discuss all of Hamish's childhood through future chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hamish Watson-Holmes

**Author's Note:**

> THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS!!! I have written the first chapter and really want to gauge if it's something people would enjoy reading more of. If yes, I will endeavour to finish it. As this is my first piece of fanfiction, it will certainly be a learning curve! I look forward to your feedback, any please good and bad a both appreciated so that my future work can be better! I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> P.S. 'Hash' is short for Hamish, I didn't know what nickname to give him, as Hammy sounded strange! 
> 
> P.P.S. If you find any mistakes please let me know! I have proof-read but I'm sure I missed something. I just wanted to get this out there to see what the reaction would be like :)

  


A man. A slender, tall and bright-faced man with glowing hazel eyes and a mass of curly mousey-brown hair. His confidence fills the room and he stands with strong posture and grandeur. A beaming smile lights up his face and makes his eyes shine brighter. Speaking with eloquence, he strings together his sentences like the most graceful and expensive garlands that a London haberdashery would sell. But through all this finery and splendour, there is a playful, kind and loveable boy who you cannot help but like. This boy is what I see when I look at him. Beyond the intelligence and self-assurance is the boy that we brought up, the boy that we loved and nurtured. This boy is Hamish Watson-Holmes and he is now a man.    

It seems like so little time ago that we set eyes on him for the first time. The first time his hazel iris’ gleamed at us and his chubby little hands beckoned us in for a cuddle. The soothing feeling of his warm breath on my neck as I hugged him. I remember how I felt in those first few precious moments, as my unequivocal love was instantly formed. Both me and Sherlock knew without even speaking that we would love this boy unconditionally for the rest of our lives. This day was 29th January 2013, the three year anniversary of mine and Sherlock’s first meeting. Before that first encounter I was skeptical that you could fall in love with someone at first sight but I knew I was wrong when I first met Sherlock and then Hamish. It was true, twice over.  

Fourteen years on and I still feel precisely the same way. I know now that they are the two most important males in my life. Sherlock; my soulmate, partner and best friend, and Hamish, my Son, companion and comedian. My life is perfect and it is all down to the fact that I have such a wonderful Husband and an amazing child. What else could a man ask for? 

Hamish was two years old when we adopted him. He was an orphan, both his parents died in a boating accident in the Caribbean when he was only a few months old. We knew that he had had an awful start to life and both Sherlock and I wanted to give him another chance to become the person that we believed he could, the person he is today. It hasn’t been easy, certainly not.

Firstly there was figuring how we would bring him up. Sherlock and I were deeply in love. We had made vows to each other that we would make every effort to keep until our dying day. (It really isn’t hard though, every time I look into these blue-green glistening eyes I fall in love all over again.) We both knew that caring for a child would be the next step in our relationship but sadly some people didn’t agree. I could see that the world was changing, in our favour, but still there were people who just wanted to end our dreams of starting a family. We both knew though, that the people that we care about most believed in us the whole way through. Our families; Mycroft, Harry and Mrs Hudson (as good as family) and our friends; Greg, Molly and Mike.

I am now so grateful that I didn’t give up on the dream and that we did decide to go on that bitterly cold day in January to meet ‘a little boy, in need of a good home with kind loving parents who are patient and can offer him the best possible start in life’. That’s how social services described him and at that time we doubted that we really could give him the best start; having two Dad’s isn’t ‘natural’ after all. And then there’s the fact that one of them is the World’s only Consulting Detective and the Other is an Army Doctor with bullet wounds and similarly painful phycological injuries. But then we saw how small and alone he looked sitting in his cot. The question of whether we were going to adopt him never really arose, I guess both Sherlock and I knew deep down that we couldn’t fight this love and that we wouldn’t. 

Every other day for the next three weeks we went to visit him, we battled the snow, london traffic and missed countless cases but that wasn’t important, our little boy was the only thing that mattered and looking after him was our priority. When Sherlock looked at Hash, I could see that he was filled with warmth, something that Sherlock didn’t possess when I had first met him. I could see that this little child had found Sherlock’s (once non-existent) heart in a matter of minutes. 

As soon as the adoption papers had gone through, we got to bring him home to 221b. I knew that the way in which Sherlock worked was not child-friendly and he agreed to stop being so messy and to refrain from keeping human remains in the fridge or leaving chemicals from failed experiments lying around again. I didn’t think that he was capable of changing but Hamish’s safety was paramount and Sherlock cared about nothing more. After we got together, my room was no longer used. From that very first kiss, we have slept in the same bed, in each other’s arms. I sorted out all my old stuff and put it in neat places in our bedroom and then we spent a weekend decorating what would become Hash’s bedroom.

We both put our own stamp on the room, Sherlock painted 3 of the walls a deep blue just like the colour of his favourite scarf and dressing gown and I painted the last wall white and added blue stripes. Sherlock got annoyed at regular intervals with the booklets explaining how the IKEA furniture should fit together, in the end, he got so frustrated with how so many pieces “weren’t there”, and how it “obviously must have been designed by someone with the same IQ as Anderson”, that I told him to go and make the dinner in the newly cleaned kitchen. 

When I was finally happy with the room, Sherlock showed me what he had been hiding from me ever since we had realised that Hash would be coming to live with us. It was a black and white photograph printed onto canvas of the first time we met Hamish. I hadn’t known it a the time but one of the care-workers at the centre had taken a photo of that first emotional encounter. It really did display all of my emotions far more powerfully than any words I could ever write down. We hung that picture over his cot, we hoped that even if he couldn’t see it then, later on, he would see how much we loved him and that love would always be there no matter what. 

The taxi ride on the day that we had to collect Hamish seemed to last for an eternity, the feelings that our lives were about to change for the better were so close but we just couldn’t reach them yet. We got stuck on Park Lane for what felt like at least 3 hours and then again in Knightsbridge. But I instantly forgot that feeling of boredom and monotony when I picked Hash up and told him that I loved him, we loved him. I knew then every was going to be ok. 


	2. The Beating Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John and Sherlock are married, they have been together 17 years and they are just as close. Their son Hamish, has reached a very important point in his life and his parent's realise how soon, they must say goodbye.
> 
> John realises how lucky he is to have found Sherlock's heart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I have said, this is a work in progress! I am still completely unsure as to how long it will be. I guess I will just have to go with the flow. I have proof-read but something was bound to slip through my grasp. Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy it!

Bringing up a child is a rather daunting task, to say the least. Firstly, there’s the rather small things such as teaching them to walk, talk, and use the toilet to wee in rather than to drop things from a great height to see how wet they can make the bathroom. But slowly, these small things add up. Everything that a child learns when they are 2 years old stays with them for the rest of their lives. And that means that if you’ve messed it up, well, you’ve messed it up big time. 

I always wanted children, as long as I can remember. I loved the feeling of having someone rely on you and love you no matter what. Knowing that you are responsible for bringing a new human-being into the world and helping to shape them into someone who you can be proud of and that can be proud of themselves. Of course, we didn’t bring Hamish into the world, someone else played that role. But that didn’t mean that we couldn’t help him to grow physically and emotionally like any other parents, no matter how unconventional we were. 

I know Sherlock knew that I was a family man. I’m sure he deduced that the first time he saw me around a child. It was a crisp, February morning, we hadn’t had a case for a week. London seemed sleepy as we strolled through St. James’ Park (I had insisted that Sherlock got some fresh air). He was doing his usual between-case sulk and checking his phone every thirty seconds to see if he had received a text from Lestrade that he had somehow missed the countless other times he had looked at it. A mist was forming in the air, and we were heading home. We turned onto the pathway that would lead us onto the Horseguard’s Parade when I heard crying. It was the sound of a child in pain. Long, loud sobs. And then I saw him, a small boy, perhaps 5 or 6 was lying on the ground, his bike left in the middle of the pathway. It was a nasty fall, he had grazes up both his arms and legs and his teeth had split his lip. Then there was cries of panic coming from behind us and a woman, who turned out to be his mother, jostled past in order to help her little boy.   
I let her know that I was a doctor and I helped patch him up with a few plasters I kept in my wallet. (You’ve never know what situation you may find yourself in when you live with Sherlock!)

I helped calm him and his mother down and assure her that it was nothing serious and that Jack, I found out his name, would heal up in a week-or-so. I just felt so at home caring for him, I guess it just came naturally.   
It wasn’t really surprising that Sherlock wasn’t very comfortable around children. He does have Mycroft as a brother and with their age gap, I doubt Sherlock ever got to see his brother acting playfully or like normal children do. Well the Holmes brothers are not normal so I presume that they weren’t normal children, in fact I’m almost certain. 

Me being around Sherlock and introducing him to new things really helped him to grow as a person. Before, he wouldn’t think about what he was saying to people or how his opinions could come across as offensive. But, I did notice a difference in his character, he started putting effort into pleasing me and making sure that the way he was behaving was right. It was quite endearing. This led him to give children a chance and realise that they aren’t a race of strange, small, aliens. They are just well, children.

I think it’s fair to say that Sherlock was slightly intimidated by them. Children are far more unexpected than adults are. They act on impulse and they are far from predictable. I guess that’s where the saying, ‘don’t work with children and animals’ comes from. He found it so much more of a challenge to deduce children, after all they have a nack of hiding things. But Sherlock loves a challenge and he learnt how to behave around them. 

I never really knew how Sherlock would be around someone that he was caring for 24 hours a day for the next 18 or so years of their life, until I saw it for myself. But, I was put at ease when I saw how gentle and caring he was being toward Hash. The way he would pick him up and snuggle him in his arms. I could see how far Sherlock had come, how he can gently rock a 2 year-old to sleep like it came as easily as the science of deduction.   
I may have looked like the perfect father from the outside but Sherlock was the real natural. He never picked up a parenting book once, he just seemed to know instinctively what to do. How to speak in a more soothing tone and be gentle towards his son. 

Parenthood is filled with precious moments, for many they are their child’s first words, first step or first giggle. All these things had happened for Hamish when he was in somebody else's care. The things that were most special to me were the ones that made me realise how lucky I am. The time that I came home from work to find Sherlock and Hash sleeping on the sofa. Hash, lying in Sherlock’s warm and comforting arms.

It’s moments like that when you want to pause time and stay like that forever. Of course I’m glad that I didn’t pause it there because I would have missed all the emotions that Hash still had to bring me: happiness, joy, pride and enduring love. He has taught me patience and composition. Both things that my time in the army seemed to overlook. John Watson, War Hero. That’s what I was labeled as. But really that was far from the truth. When your under a continuos rain of bullets it really is near impossible to do your job as a doctor. That’s not to say that I didn’t try. I put my heart and soul into to trying to save those men, they were my friends, my comrades. I had to watch them die in front of me. I guess I was foolish thinking I could go into a war zone and save every single man that was injured or hurt. I should of realised the size of the task before I had taken it on but no; I’m John Watson and I act on impulse, often foolish and carless. Hamish taught me how to channel that and I’m a better man because of it. 

The changes in Sherlock were most noticeable but they equally as large in both of us. Have a son brought us closer than ever. We both realised that we were in this journey for the long term and we’re a better team because of it. It’s fair to say that I loved Sherlock Holmes before Hamish came along but when he did, I could see that Sherlock wasn’t going anywhere, he would stay right here with me and our son. If it was even possible, I loved him even more.

It pains to me to say that Moriarity was right, but one occasion he was. Sherlock Holmes has always had a heart. A very large one sitting in his chest between two lungs. It’s just no one, before me or Hash, had looked deep enough to find it. But, I can assure you. It is definitely there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank You again! I will try to update every Monday evening, hopefully I should be able to stick to this!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I am aware it's quite short but think of it as a taster. If you would like the full portion, please comment of leave Kudos of do whatever you feel is best. Thank You Sherlockians :)


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